SEXUAL offences recorded in Dorset have increased by 10 per cent in the last year.

The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics show 642 sex crimes were reported to Dorset Police between June 2013 and June 2014.

The rate of increase is lower than the national trend, which saw a 21 per cent rise in sexual offences across the country.

However, the rate of sexual offences still increased at a higher rate than any other type of crime in the county.

A spokesman for ONS said current, rather than historic offences account for the majority of the increase.

“It is difficult to obtain reliable information on the volume of sexual offences as it is known that a high proportion of offences are not reported to the police and changes in recorded figures may reflect changes in reporting or recording rates rather than actual victimisation,” he added.

“There are likely to be two main factors in the rise in police recorded rape and sexual offences; an increase in the willingness of victims to come forward and report these crimes to the police, and an improvement in crime recording by the police for these offences.

“The increase in people coming forward to report sexual offences is likely to be due to a wider ‘Operation Yewtree’ effect, where victims of sexual offences that are not directly connected to Yewtree are now reporting these offences to the police.”

In total 36,501 crimes were recorded in Dorset last year, which is a fall of seven per cent on last year’s figures.

In Dorset this was partly accounted for by a 23 per cent drop in vehicle offences and 17 per cent decline in bike thefts, with criminal damage and arson falling by 12 per cent and domestic burglary by eight per cent.

Dorset Police’s head of performance, Julia Yates, said: “In the case of sexual offences the number of historic offences being reported in the wake of high profile cases elsewhere in the country has continued to increase overall numbers and indicates that members of the public are more confident to come forward and report historic crimes.”

She added: “Increases in other types of violence are also being experienced by many other forces and may be due to a number of reasons which the force is working to understand, while tackling the offences proactively through Operation Protect and a number of other initiatives.”